9 december - SINCERE THANKS AND GRATITUDE TO MIRIAM AND HARRY.

Dear Miriam and Harry,

With heart filled with thanks and gratitude the families of Sathyaraj and Sujipriya express their deep sense of love and affection to you. The transformation that you have brought into their lives is most significant and very important for their future life.

For the dalit families especially for the dalit women owning a piece of land and having their own house is very prestigious recognition to the families. The families owned piece of lands with your support and this gave them the possibility of having their own house.

The families are very happy to have their own home.The families after many generations are going to live in their own house. Sathyaraj and Sujipriya say that they happy to have their own house. They say that the house is good and spacious. The children say that they can play around, grow plants, rare animals and be happy.

The mothers say that having a house of their own is also a social identity and recognition in the society. The mothers feel it as a blessing from God through the kindness of Miriam and Harry. The mothers express that they will be ever grateful to Miriam and Harry for the beautiful life and future given to their families.

DEET thanks Miriam and Harry for giving us an opportunity to bring a change in the lives of Sathyaraj and Sujipriya families. The families are very proud to have a house of their own. Thanks for coming forward to support these families with piece of lands and support the construction of their homes. The support was complete and most valuable to the families. We thank you very much for this concrete and kind support to these dalit families.

We also thank Childrenshome for being an instrument to realize this support to the dalit families. The families are very grateful to your kind support.

Once again, Sujipriya and Sathyaraj families and DEET express our sincere thanks and gratitude to Miriam and Harry and Childrenshome. We pray and wish that God bless your life with good health and happiness. You will be in our thoughts and wishes always.

Many greetings and wishes from Sathyaraj and Sujipriya.
We wish you a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2015.

With gratitude and thanks,
On behalf of Sujipriya and Sathyaraj families,
Mrs. Prema Latha,
DEET.

5 december 2014 Kerstaktie Childrenshome.

Geweldig mensen, de teller staat inmiddels op € 4.960,00!!!

5 december update over de bouw van de huizen voor de twee families.

Prema visited the families yesterday and taken pictures of the building works. We are happy to share the pictures with Miriam and Harry. Prema will meet the families again on Saturday or Sunday and the familys write a thanks letter. The families are very grateful to Childrenshome and Miriam and Harry. Please find enclosed the pictures. On Saturday Sathyaraj family is fixing door frames and starting the cement plastering works and on coming Wednesday Sujipriya family doing roofing works. Sand, metal stones, iron rods and other materials are purchased to execute the works.

>> 31 oktober - Thanks for the good news

We are happy to hear the good news from Margit and Linda, from the De Cirkel, Belgium. It is good that they have come forward to offer this support. The children will be happy to receive this support. We discussed the need with Mr.Christopher and he suggested giving all children at school a new set of uniform or a sports dress and this will be their Christmas presents. This will be further discussed with children and decided. The main idea is to have clothes for all children in the dalit school.

Margit and Linda,thank you for all the support and encouragement. Thanks for these good news to families and children.

We are doing well and everyone is in good health.
We wish and expect the same at your side.
The quarterly holidays for children are over and today they are back to school. All the adopt children come back to school today. This pictures of adopt children taken on the special day spent with children and families. The children and mothers are happy to come to our place. They say that it is their place and feel happy with us. As presents we offered them bucket for taking water and bath, water bottle to take water to school, small snacks and luck bag, tooth paste, brush, face cream, face power, etc. The children were very happy to have the presents. The adopt children and their parents are very grateful to all adopt parents for their love and concern. They have extended their sincere gratitude to Childrenshome.The pictures were taken by the photographer, our camera in not good working.When children come to our place they like to spend time and play in the campus. As expressed to you we like to install a few playing items in the campus. We also seek your support to buy a Camera for our office use.We wish you a fine day and wish you good health and happiness.

Greetings to you from Dr. I. Sebastian M.A, M.B.A Executive Director, St. Joseph's Development Trust, Genguvarpatti, South India.Herewith I am enclosing the attachment of "NURTURING INHERENT TALENTS OF THE CHILDREN THROUGH LITERARY ASSOCIATION".

Thanking you.

Yours fraternally in Xt
Dr. I. Sebastian, M.A, M.B.A, P. hd.,

Executive Director

ST.JOSEPH DEVELOPMENT TRUST
GENGUVARPATTI

NURTURING INHERENT TALENTS OF THE CHILDREN THROUGH LITERARY ASSOCIATION

INTRODUCTION:
The children in SJDT’s orphanages are provided lot of opportunities to nurture their inherent talents and to come up in life with flying colors. Once in six months the literary association meeting is conducted in the orphanages and the children participate in different competitions and try to develop their talents. Children’s development is the main aim of St. Joseph’s Development Trust and they are nourished well with special skills as they grow in their respective orphanages namely Puduvasanthem, Pudupunal and PuduIrudhayam. Their personal talents and skill are well developed through literary association programme and brighten their future. On the birthday of Dr. I. Sebastian M.A, M.B.A. literary association programmes were organized for all our children in these orphanages in the month of July 2014.

PUDHU VANSANTHAM
Pudhu Vansantham children’s home caters to the educational needs of girls between the age group of six to seventeen. The children rural areas particularly orphans, destitute children are given priority in the admission. This academic year there are 112 children are studying in the home. The inmates are attending schools in the neighbouring villages namely Pallapatty, Silkkuvarpatty.

This academic year the first literary association meeting was conducted on 2nd July 2014. Dr. I. Sebastian M.A, M.B.A, the executive director presided over the programme. Dr. Jebrija Mary M.B.B.S,Doctor in primary health centre in Ammainayakkanur and Mr. Pandiyan the physical education teacher at R.C Higher Secondary school in Silkuvarpatty and the wardens of pudupunal home were the judges for the competition.

The girls performed group dances, poem reading and group singing from all seven cottages. All the seven cottage girls danced very well, sang group songs very melodiously, read poems meaningfully. Their performances were very appreciable. The girls exhibited their talents really very well. The judges were very meticulous in awarding marks for each performance.

The results were announced by the executive director. In the dance competition Bent Rasmussen cottage children got first prize. In the poem –reading competition Bro.Thomas cottage children got first prize. In the singing competition Carl Jogan cottage children got first prize.

The executive director appreciated very much all the children who participated in different competitions, and awarded prizes to the toppers. He also encouraged all the children to make use of the opportunity and develop their talents. All the home children were given new school bag by the executive director. Finally the vote of thanks was proposed by Miss. Amali,the house mother.

PUDHU PUNAL:
The children’s home namely Pudupunal established by SJDT is a home for the destitute, parents less or abandoned girl children. It is located in Genguvarpatti village in Theni District. At present there are 167 girl children living in 14 cottages. We are giving them what they have lost or never had to which we feel every child has a right, namely, an atmosphere of family life in warm and happy surroundings. A foster mother looks after 6 to 7 girl children in each cottage. The cottage mother is attending the children’s basic needs, their physiological requirements (food and drink, sleep, physical contact), their need for security (stability, protection, order, defined limits), and their needs in terms of identification and love (relationships, affection, contacts), respect (strength, abilities, independence, and liberty) and self realisation (self-fulfilment).

During this academic year in 2014 the first literary association meeting was conducted on 9th July 2014. Mrs.Inigo and Suba, teachers from St. Soosaiyappar primary school presided over this literary association programme. Miss Shanmugavalli, staff of PuduIrudhayam, Marthal, Indira, Amali and Dharani staff members from Puduvasanthem were the judges for the competitions. Miss. Joselin and Devi Bala, staff of Pudupunal were there to witness the children’s talents exhibited by literary association. Children from 12 cottages took part in the dance, poem, singing and elocution competitions. Salth team members from Jantie Kluider cottage got first prize for the best dance performance as danced with balloons. Children from Stefan cottage got second prize for the dance performance. For singing Stefan cottage children got first prize as they sang about the current world situations. Children from Sathish Samuel cottage got second prize as they sang about the danger of drinking alcohol. Stafen cottage children got first prize for best speech. Tharangambadi cottage children got second prize. For poem Stefan cottage children got first prize and Anne Theresa cottage got second prizes.

PUDHU IRUDHAYAM:
Puthu Irudhayam ( Enable for life) has been functioning well since 2009. It gives life and hope for the orphan, semi-orphan, abandoned, destitute, neglected and poor girl children. This home is situated in Thiruvidaikazhi in Tranquebar Block in Nagapattinam district, Tamilnadu. At present 83 children are sheltered and taken care in this home. This home is run by St.Joseph’s Development Trust. Rev.Dr.I.Sebastian is the founder and director of this home. Among 83, 38 children are going to St. John school in Tranquebar and 45 children are going to St. Theresa school in Tranqeubar. 6 cottages are there in Pudu Irudhayam and in each cottage 15 children are staying under the care of the warden.

Literary association for the year 2014 was organized grandly on 18th Friday, July 2014 at PuduIrudhayam. Dr. I. Sebastian M.A. M.B.A announced the date of the literary association a week ago. 14 children from 5 cottages encouraged to participate in this literary association.

Literary association programme was started at 6.30 p.m by welcoming the chief guest Rev. Fr. Mariadoss, parish priest of Tranquebar with traditional drum beating by PuduIrudhayam children. Along with Rev. Fr. Mariadoss, sisters from St. John’s school and representatives from the local parish were invited for this literary association. Pudupunal coordinator M.Mallika, Puduvasanthem coordinator Indra did the evaluation for dance, poem, elocution and fancy dress competition. Rev. Fr. Mariadoss appreciated all the participants for their better performance. Mallika, coordinator of Pudupunal also announced that all the children are very good and better than the children of Pudupunal. They visited each cottage and evaluated the programme and presented prize to the winners. Hanne cottage got first prize. C.M Mariyal cottage got second prize and the third prize was given to Salath cottage. S. Deepasankari from Hanne cottage gave a very good speech on the better status of the women in the society. She also gave a special speech on the girl’s education. M.Janifer received first prize in the dance competition. For writing best poem, R. Bhavithra and Janifer received first prizes. S. Kalaimani got first prize for singing. G.Arulmozhi performed well in the fancy dress competition and got first prizes. Rev.Fr. Mariadoss encouraged all the children to develop their own personal skills and talents and to become a talented person in the society. This literary association really helped our children to develop their extra-curricular talents and at the same time increased their confident level. This has resulted in our children’s performances in school level extra-curricular competitions. Our children took part in school annual sports and other competitions conducted this year and many of them secured prizes.

Greetings to you from Dr. I. Sebastian M.A, M.B.A Executive Director, St. Joseph's Development Trust, Genguvarpatti, South India.

I am herewith enclosing the translated version of the Tamil Nadu government's recent directives to orphanages. What is written here is only part of the story. But the interpretation of the enforcement authorities is much more vigorous. The press and few lawyers are going around all orphanages instigating inmates and trying to make a living out of these. So the government officials who are terribly afraid of bad press and legal tangles are raiding orphanages and demanding all kinds of infrastructural provisions. The government officials are openly discouraging orphanages for they say it is because of these orphanages press is making bad propaganda of the government.
The demands and animosity of the government is costing lot of tension and financial problems for all orphanages. Several of the smaller orphanages have closed down and many are forced by the government to close down. Fortunately since we do have reasonably good infrastructure and good staff our problems are comparatively less. But yet we expect to have huge financial expenditures for maintaining good infrastructure and quality standard of running cost.
Once again thanking you for the support and as well as hope you will extend your additional helping hand.
Thanking You. Yours fraternally in Xt Dr. I. Sebastian, M.A, M.B.A, P. hd., Executive Director.

11 september Distribution materials for the hostel children Dindigul en Vadipatti

We wish you a fine day.

As informed to you we visited the hostel children in Dindigul and Vadipatti and distributed materials required by them. We given them school bag, towel, water bottle, tooth paste, brush, face powder, lunch bag, etc. We also offered money to meet their medical and regular expenses. It was also an opportunity to meet the parents of the children and interact with them. The children and parents are very happy to receive the materials and they are very grateful to all adopt parents. As you see in the pictures the children are growing up well and they are happy to see us and spend the day with us. The adopt children, their parents and we express our sincere thanks and gratitude to all adopt parents and Childrenshome.

21 augustus Why SJDT focuses its development activities towards women and girl children.
"India is still not a country for girl children."

Many a times our friends and donors frequently ask the question why SJDT's 99% of beneficences are females. In the case of our Micro credit programme out of 30000 beneficiaries' 29990 beneficiaries are women. In the case of our children's Home out of 450 children 400 are girl children. In the same way of the 500 home based children support 400 children are girl children. SJDT'S beneficiary statistics show a clear preference for the females. India is a country that discriminates and abuse girls in many ways. India is a patriarchal society for ages and still continues to be.

This is what patriarchy is, the last barrier to equality and community (I prefer saying 'community' rather than the older word, 'fraternity'). Patriarchy exists everywhere.

It is subtle - like the glass walls and ceilings in the workplace, which condone unequal pay for equal work; but it is also brutal and vicious - like khap diktats, acid attacks, battered wives, 'honor' killings.

For as the women's movement has always reminded us, rape is not a sexual crime. In its essence, it is a crime of power. In other words, rape is used to stifle, deny and prevent equality based on gender.

But patriarchy has a unique color in this country. It is tinted with caste, with that pernicious system of social stratification which makes sure that 'those others' stay in their place - below us - to serve us when we want.

This practice of dominance is routinely used and abused by the various arms of the Indian state - the army, police, judiciary in particular - to assert caste power and privilege over India's lowest caste the dalits, tribals, minorities and women. And sexual violence is part of the routine of terror.

In the mindset of dominance, some groups become intrinsically 'rape-able'. These are the womenfolk of the minorities, Dalits, tribals, widows ect. And also those 'not like us', such as sex workers, homosexuals, the differently abled, teenage orphans and others. The lives of these do not matter anyway, not as much as those of the 'right caste'.

In fact the hatred of most Indian men for women is so pervasive that it is expressed in killing them before they are born through female feticide and female infanticide when born, which are still common, rather than share property and dignity with them.

Why is it that the Indian state which brags about becoming a global 'super power' is at the very bottom of the ladder in its quality of health, freedom from violence, access to resources and freedom from sexual trafficking? Or as the metaphor puts it, why is it that there are more cell-phones in this country than toilets?

Obviously because those who rule the Indian state believe 'that sort of people" have no claim to what 'we' have.

When those agitating for civil rights cry for 'inclusiveness' in Indian society, what they want is an equality of rights and opportunities for those most dispossessed of food and nutrition, of education and welfare.

Recently media is exposing the rape perpetrators of women and children which have been norm in India for centuries. For a woman to live in India is to be under constant threat of verbal or physical assault, of physical violence at home or on the streets, of rape and murder.

It has been this way for centauries but never noticed until recently media started exposing it.

Why Indian society did not notice this for long because we are still a feudal, patriarchal society where men are the norm and what men see and speak are the truth. Patriarchal family believes that women are men's possessions - to be used and set aside, to be displayed as an ornament to be battered for benefits, to be thrashed and abused it they talk back and to be killed if unwanted or cause dishonor to the family.

To bridge this cruel gap between the gender girls need education, self esteem, skill and opportunities. This is what SJDT is determined to achieve through its progammes.

This is for now and I will in my next write up focus on another reason why girl children deserve better attention.

Thanking You.

Yours fraternally in Xt

Dr. I. Sebastian, M.A, M.B.A, P. hd.,

Executive Director.

20 augustus Independence Day of India

August 15 was Independence Day of India and Mrs. Prema Latha from DEET visited the school and hostel children and participated in the flag hosting ceremony. We made all children happy by distributing water bottles and pencil box. The children were very happy to have the presents on the day. The children also planted trees on Independence day in the campus of hostel.

11 augustus Submission of annual report for the period 2013-2014 - Stichting Childrenshome.

Greetings and prayerful wishes to you from Dr. I. Sebastian M.A, M.B.A Executive Director, St. Joseph's Development Trust, Genguvarpatti, South India.

I hope by now you have received the annual exam results of our orphanage children. Now along with this letter we are enclosing our annual report for the period 2013- 2014. I hope you will be happy to read them. All this possible, only because of your unstinted support. This year also we request your continuous support for the welfare of the children in our orphanages.

Thanking you.

Yours fraternally in Xt

Dr. I. Sebastian M.A. MBA

Executive Director.

11 augustus Annual exam result

Dear Jan en Lia Mureau,

Greetings to you from Dr. I. Sebastian M.A, M.B.A Executive Director, St. Joseph's Development Trust, Genguvarpatti, South India

I am herewith enclosing our annual exam result of all the children in our different orphanages. We are so proud that we got all our children successfully to pass in the final exam. We really appreciate all our wardens and supervisors for this great achievement. We hope you also feel proud about our children's performances.

We take this opportunity to thank you sincerely for all your support.

Thanking you

Yours fraternally in Xt

Dr. I. Sebastian fsc, M.A, M.B.A,P.hd.,
Executive Director

23 juli Drawing and expressions form the children of SJDT

7 juli Trainingsdagen voor stafleden en medewerkers van SJDT

How good it is to prepare oneself to meet the challenges and problems in the future. This eventually would help a person to grow personally and produce sufficient progress to the institute in which a person works. With this idea in mind of developing a person and for the success of the institute the training session for the staff was arranged by the executive director of the Institute from 05.05.2014 to 09.05.2014. A short and synthesized summery is presented below which proves how good and useful this session was and every detail regarding this session.

3 juli Bericht van Br. Sebastian, SJDT

1 million children go unschooled in India
8:30 AM, July 1, 2014
India(Delhi):India had 1.4 million children out of school in 2011.

The world has over 58 million unschooled children aged 6 to 11 and at least 1 million of them are in India, despite the country making valiant efforts, UN says.

India, Indonesia and Pakistan each have more than a million children out of school, said a report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

It said that India had 1.4 million children out of school in 2011 but the country is among 17 other nations that have managed to reduce the number of out-of-school children in the past decade.

"Combined with UNESCO's recent news that aid to education has fallen yet again, the lack of progress in reducing out of school numbers confirms our fears – there is no chance whatsoever that countries will reach the goal of universal primary education by 2015," UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said in a statement.

Pakistan had 5.4 million children out of school in 2012 while the figure for Indonesia was 1.3 million. The UNESCO's policy paper said that positive change is possible, spotlighting success in 17 countries that have reversed that trend over the past decade.??

The 17 countries, including Burundi, Yemen, Ghana, Nepal, Rwanda, India, Iran and Vietnam, accounted for about one-quarter of the global out-of-school population in 2000.

But they managed to reduce their out-of-school numbers by 86 per cent, from 27 million to less than four million, in little over a decade.

2 juli Tweedaagse sessie dorpskinderen SJDT

These two days comprised the topics such as child rights, career guidance, leadership skills, personality Development, motivating session to become a good human and an inspiring session of utilizing the opportunities.
Two days session was organized for village sponsor children on 07.06.2014 and 08.06.2014. These two days comprised the topics such as child rights, career guidance, leadership skills, personality Development, motivating session to become a good human and an inspiring session of utilizing the opportunities. The children were very glad and happy that they were given a wonderful opportunity to develop themselves and plan for a great future. They feel they are greatly indebted to SJDT that the Institute has been playing a vital role in their progress and well being. These children are very much eager to have such programmes in the future too and the Institute is very hopeful to do so and glad about their feedback from the students.

29 juni from SJDT

Dear Lia and Jan,

Thank you Very much for your visit to India and to our orphanages as well.
Your visit has brought immense joy en the face of children and to use also.
Here wirh sending you an album which consists of photos during your visit to our homes.
I quest it would bring you a lot of happiness and fond memories.